UV-curable coatings are currently extensively used in many industries. Particular applications include surface coating treatments in furniture, flooring, and consumer electronics. In particular, UV-curable coatings are specifically used in consumer electronics for creating a clear and high gloss surface on an electronic product.
However, current techniques used in the coating on an electronic product have the following drawbacks. The high flowability of some coatings results in coated substrates having “picture frame” effects, i.e., thick at the edge and thin in the center, looking like a frame.
There are several attempts to solve the above-identified problems. One is to increase the molecular weight of the main resin(s) in the coating so as to decrease the flowability of the resins. Another is to use highly volatile diluents so as to decrease the flowability of wet films. However, both methods have not solved the problems with complete satisfaction. Although sometimes picture framing effects are decreased, the leveling property of the coat film is unacceptable.
Hence, it is still a longer term demand in the art to provide a UV-curable coating composition having both appropriate flowability and good mirror surface effects in the resulting coating, so as to be used in applications requiring high leveling property.